The illustrator of Karen Hesse’s Come On, Rain! (1999) places Charlip’s (Peanut Butter Party, not reviewed, etc.) rushed young narrator amidst an extended, multicultural family and gives her a book that is recognizably this one, sometimes even open to the same spread. As a clock ticks away in the background, she details her morning routine from first big stretch to schoolward rush, then reels off afternoon and evening tasks that somehow manage to fill every moment until bedtime. (There’s a clock to watch on every page, and multiple clocks on those with many panels.) Often, she’s got the book with her; as often, she leaves it behind. Somehow, she never gets to read it, even though it’s open wide and she’s not even going to an after-school activity. Figures are posed with casual, natural-looking grace; the legibly hand-lettered text alternates between the narrator’s breathless chatter and family members’ antiphonal comments (“WHO LEFT THIS BOOK IN THE FRIDGE?”) slanting across opposite pages. Children might want to share this veteran writer’s oblique, whimsical reminder to slow down and smell the printer’s ink with their overscheduled parents. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-58246-018-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tricycle
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
A dark tale of the eternal "struggle between good and evil, beauty and ugliness," from a master, given pristine treatment in the illustrations that appear in this edition. A cruel Chinese emperor casts everything in his kingdom in his own deformed spirit, and the result is The Court of Injustice (where robbers go free, for a price), a Secretary of False Promises, stuffed arsenals, punk hairdos, police corruption, and godless temples. But tyranny will always have its opponents, and so the crown prince, who grows up with an intuitive sense of truth and justice, joins the revolutionaries to bring an end to his father's reign. There is a heroic dimension to this tale and some savage buffoonery, but nothing unruly finds its way into the meticulous, paneled Asian art, which remains coolly distant and stylized. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 26, 1996
ISBN: 0-374-37681-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Best Worst Day ($13.95, $3.95 paper; April 22, 1996; 64 pp.; 0-7868-0167-0, paper 0-7868-1090-4): In the Chapters series, an entry about the wish for a friend that comes true, with only minor disappointments along the way. The new girl in Lucy's class, Maya, looks like perfect best-friend material, and Lucy practically wills it to be so. At the end of the day, it is Maya who asks Lucy for friendship. This sweet but unlikely tale has a gloss of perfection usually reserved for fairy tales; new readers will feel comfortable with the pacing and the just-right dose of suspense. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 22, 1996
ISBN: 0-7868-0167-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
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